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Iraq tries to arrest GIs

ABU GHRAIB, Iraq - When insurgents attacked an American convoy with AK-47 rounds and a couple of grenades on a dusty highway in a Baghdad suburb this week, U.S. soldiers returned fire, chased the suspects through narrow alleyways and raided houses.

Tuesday's clash killed two Iraqi adults and a 14-year-old and wounded four people, including two children.

When the shooting subsided, another confrontation began. A senior Iraqi army commander who arrived at the scene concluded that the Americans had fired indiscriminately at civilians and ordered his men to take the U.S. soldiers into custody. The U.S. military said the soldiers had acted in self-defense and had sought to avoid civilian casualties; U.S. commanders at the scene persuaded the Iraqis to back down.

The incident, apparently the first time a senior Iraqi commander has sought to detain U.S. soldiers, signals a potential escalation of tensions between U.S. and Iraqi forces trying to find a new equilibrium as Iraq assumes more responsibility for its security.

It begs the question whether the deadline should be moved up even sooner? I suspect that while this will not be the last incident, I am sure we are going to see more and more in the future.

In recent days, Iraqis have questioned American soldiers at checkpoints in Baghdad, at times preventing them from driving into neighborhoods. In one incident, an Iraqi soldier drew a weapon on a U.S. armored vehicle, American officials said.....

...."I worry that an Iraqi army soldier will shoot at my truck with his 20 AK-47 rounds and my gunner will shoot back with his 100 50-caliber rounds instead of ducking down," a U.S. officer said on the condition of anonymity.

Re: Iraq tries to arrest GIs

Similar story.

American troops under ‘house arrest’ after Iraq pullout

When American troops pulled out of Iraqi cities this month they did not realise quite how final their departure would be. The Iraqi military has since barred them from re-entering areas they previously controlled and all but locked them out of towns and cities.

US convoys can no longer pass through checkpoints in Baghdad without prior approval and an Iraqi escort. American night-time raids in pursuit of insurgents have also been curtailed by Iraqi officials who gained the right to veto all such missions on July 1.

In several cases, the Iraqis took action themselves; in others the suspected insurgents slipped away.

The American military has little choice but to comply with the new rules, leaving many units involuntarily confined to their bases. Asked if American troops were in fact under “house arrest”, Robert Gates, the US Defence Secretary, failed to deny the assertion, saying wryly: “It is perhaps a measure of our success in Iraq that politics have come to the country.”

Re: Iraq tries to arrest GIs

The very second we pull out,,,the Iraqi people know they'll fall right back into Islamic Factions,,,and start killing each other again.

So you preer we stay there forever then?

The Makeout Hobo is real, and does indeed travel around the country in his van and make out with ladies... If you meet the Makeout Hobo, it is customary to greet him with a shot of whiskey and a high five (if you are a dude) or passionate makeouts (if you are a lady).

Re: Iraq tries to arrest GIs

Originally Posted by Realist1

The very second we pull out,,,the Iraqi people know they'll fall right back into Islamic Factions,,,and start killing each other again.

So? Let them. If Iraq fails, it will be an Iraqi failure. This was always the case. But the end result for us is that we no longer have to deal with our dictator to the cheers of the UN. Our hands can finally be clean.